Page 4022 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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complaints that were made, it was not as Ms Gallagher says in her defence; her line seems to be—and no doubt she will use it today; she used it yesterday—“Stop attacking the staff. Stop attacking the staff.”
Madam Speaker, it is the staff who are making the complaints. It is the staff. It is the front-line doctors, senior clinicians, registrars and nurses who are going to the media and who are going to the opposition. So the minister cannot stand here and say, “Don’t raise these issues because it’s making the staff upset.” It is the staff who are so frustrated with the lack of attention from this minister that they are coming to me, and they are going to the ABC and they are going to the Canberra Times.
In 2010, when they raised those concerns, they were dismissed. This was just doctor politics; that is what this minister said. We then had the disgusting situation where the Chief Minister at the time went out and said, “Let’s dig dirt up on these doctors. Let’s review the last 10 years of medical records.”
We called for a board of inquiry. We said, “Let’s bring this into the open. Let’s look at this in an objective fashion. Let’s have someone external to look into that environment.” What did the minister do? She refused to do that. She covered up one of the reports that was commissioned and was finally dragged kicking and screaming, because of the absolutely disgraceful situation and the concerns that were raised by the doctors and nurses at the time. There was a report done and the report that came back was damning. It talked about lack of cohesion amongst the executive team, considerable confusion, the chain of command often failing, complaints by staff that were not addressed, inadequate clinical governance, significant staff shortages, the heavy load inconsistent with the safe working hours concept, poorly coordinated clinical handover between shifts and significant reductions in gynaecological surgery.
There was then a situation where the director quit. But we were provided with assurances that this was being addressed; this was being resolved. I turn back to 2010 and all of the media reports, all of the statements by the minister, the statements made here—by Dr Brown, the head of Health—that the department had not received any formal complaints. That was simply not true. The hospital and ACT Health were accused of trying to hide medical blunders. The doctors voted with their feet by resigning. ACT Health hit back, saying that the royal college was “overreacting”. The director-general came out and said that it had improved. She said: “It’s all improved; there’s been a change in personnel. I’m advised the relationships in the unit are very collegiate.” That is what we were told. “This is all fixed. Nothing to worry about.”
The minister said it too, back in February 2010. “No complaints to investigate,” said Katy Gallagher on ABC News. “No complaints to investigate.” Thirteen doctors resigned and because of that attitude of burying it, denial and cover-up, here we are. “There’s a lot of doctor politics in it,” she said. “That’s all it is, just doctor politics.” “I’m not prepared to conduct an external review,” she said, “based on a couple of concerns.” That is what Katy Gallagher was saying in 2010, and it is so similar to what we are hearing today. The circumstances are very similar. The personnel are different because so many doctors have resigned, but again we are hearing the same concerns from the front-line staff and the same sort of response from the minister and the director-general.
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